Renown progress, and no more Tor Anroc please.

As I mentioned previously, my short term goal in WAR was to hit renown rank 26 around the time I hit rank 29 in order to wear all four pieces of the Devastator armor set. It’s interesting how that one goal has altered my play style for WAR, and made me reconsider some aspects of the game.

For instance, while previously I merely though of Tor Anroc as slightly annoying, I can’t stand it now. Why it’s the most popular tier 3 scenario I just don’t understand. The lava punting is cute at first, mildly entertaining after a bit, and just downright awful after your 20th scenario. Tor Anroc itself would have been fine if it was not so popular, as you would not get so tired of the lava aspect, but since it pops a good 40% of the time, its overkill.

On the other hand, some of the other T3 scenarios are fantastic. I’ve had some truly epic fights in Talabec Dam, including one particular scenario where the fight in the middle went literally for ten minutes straight. Both sides were clearly organized pre-made groups, and between some good healing and even ranks, we had a great fight. High Pass Cemetery is also one of my favorites due to how quickly you engage in combat, and how the gravestones themselves can be used for some good line-of-sight strategy. Finally Doomfist Crater is entertaining in that it’s always a mass slaughter right at the start, as both teams rush the middle. Sadly I’ve rarely seen the middle lost once it’s captured, making the first fight far too decisive. Oddly enough, Temple of Isha is a very similarly designed scenario (king of the hill basically), yet I’ve seen the capture point change hands multiple times in that one.

My participation rate for scenarios has increased, but this weekend was far from one scenario after another. Anytime Order owned a Keep, a quick message in alliance chat usually got us a warband to get it back, and capturing objectives also helps with renown gain. It seems that the best, yet rarest renown gain is open field combat in the RvR lakes. With players worth 100+ renown a kill in tier 3, even a few skirmishes goes a long way. One notable skirmish happened on Saturday, when our warband of about 8 players ran across an Order warband about twice our size. After a failed Keep siege, the Order warband went for the objectives, and in a stand alone fight, they beat our group consistently. Knowing we could not fight them head on, we instead picked an objective and hid behind some terrain, waiting for the Order warband to engage the hero mob before attacking. Catching them from behind, we made quick work of their ranged dps and healers, and with the help of the NPCs, took down the rest shortly, giving everyone a huge chunk of renown.

My DoK currently stands at rank 27 (almost 28), renown rank 21.5.On Friday I was rank at the start of rank 26, renown rank 16, so very significant progress has been made. I think with another 2-3 days focused on RvR, I should hit renown rank 26. A full clear of Mount Gunbad might slow that down, but it’s lure might be too much to pass up. As long as our group hits RR26 before rank 32 (when we get kicked out of tier 3), I’ll be happy. Five people on vent, all at the top rank for a tier is just too much fun to pass up in scenarios. 500-0 games here we come.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under RvR, Warhammer Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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8 Responses to Renown progress, and no more Tor Anroc please.

The reason TA is the most popular tier 3 scenario is simple. Its quick. A good team can win in about 5 mins and you get into the action fairly fast. Its the most efficient scenario for levelling so more people play it than the others which means it pops more often. I’m sick of it too but have discovered that you can jump up to tier 4 scenarios at lvl 28 (the extra quests aren’t open to you but you get about the same XP and renown for SP as you do for TA if you win) it adds a bit of variation to the grind that is tier 3.

TA is quick, but it’s not more renown than a good game of blackfire basin or the graveyard. Even if TA finishes 5 minutes sooner, it’s tough to break 2k renown. Fairly easy to break 2k in the graveyard or blackfire with a good premade.

I have never played a “good game” of BFB or GY though… :P Reason 1 is because they rarely pop and reason 2 is because entering with a PuG is an exercise in frustration and boredom. Entering with a premade could be quite rewarding – but that never happens for me.

If you find your Rank is increasing too high compared to your Renown Rank, I suggest capping a bunch of T3 BOs. You get 600-800 renown per BO I believe and the XP isn’t that great.

I played a whole lot of TA on my Witch Elf before I switched to Order/Open RvR ruleset, and let me tell you the most annoying part of it.

No, it isn’t that I get tired of it. No, it isn’t the lava and how people keep flying into it. It isn’t even how horribly pugs are capable of working together. No, it is not having the ability to punt people! I wished soooo bad that I could punt people, still haven’t gotten a punt ability on any of the characters I have played, not one.

i dont think the scenario popping so much has anything to do with its popularity. It have to do with the FUBAR method of selecting scenarios when people ‘Q-all” which is what 99% of people do. That is why in T4 i have played around 500 serpents passage and maybe 25 other scenario instances in total. Mystic keeps trying to fix this by thngs like normalizing people required for a scenario, and now the timer, but it is still basically non-stop serpents passage.

How do you know that 99% of people hit the ‘Join All’ button? Where’s the data? AFAIK Mythic/GOA haven’t published any of these stats. Not that it makes any difference, if the remaining 1% are still selecting only TA or SP its enough to tilt the numbers in favour of those two scenarios popping more than any others.

The best solution is to not allow any choice of scenario when hitting that button. You get a random one and like it.

If 99% are random and there are enough in the queue, then you will get a nice random sequence. However if you have 10 in the queue (Random ALL) and 2 more picking Serpents Passage only. Then the 10 are for instance not enough to start a scenario on their own. Since the 2 are waiting for SP. So time moves on and the time limiter on SP scenario respawns run out and its back on the list. Now the 2 waiting for SP only are back in play. Now the server sees 12 people are it goes the only one I can run is SP, best run that. Thats better than nothing and into SP we go.

The numbers I have picked are just an example, not a definition of how many people are required to start one

I don’t enjoy playing Tor Anroc anymore myself, the lava punting does get old real fast. I have only had the chance to play one scenario in the factory so far, it was fun but quick. Look forward to meeting up with you in game sometime.